Selection of Superior Clones by the Multi-Dimensional Decision-Making Techniques in Scots Pine Seed Orchard

Abstract

The living conditions of living beings are becoming ever more difficult due to the climate change caused by industrialization. Forests, which have a great importance in terms of natural resources, are one of the main elements which prevent this situation. Therefore, it is important to ensure the sustainability of forests and to increase their genetic and structural quality. Appropriate farms and clonal seed orchards should be established with the purpose of achieving this genetic diversity. This way, quantitative traits of clones, which are located in these seed orchards, depending on their growth performance, the cone yield can be determined. In this study, the best clones in terms of cone yield were determined through MAUT and WASPAS methods, which are some of the multiple criteria decision-making techniques. This was done by using the height and diameter measurements of 30 Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) clones selected according to random sampling method in 3 different blocks in Erzurum region. Based on the sum product assessment and multi-attribute utility theory model results, clones 22 and 29 were determined as superior and prospective for further breeding procedures in terms of seedling height and root collar diameter. According to the entropy method, the maximum weights for seedling height and root collar diameter were obtained in Block-3 with 0.580175 and in Block-1 with 0.590017, respectively.